Sister city act for Tibet and Shanghai education

THE China Welfare Institute signed agreements with a delegation from the Tibetan city of Shigatse yesterday to promote educational exchanges and the sharing of resources.

The agreements are the first batches of programs by the Institute’s new Shigatse-aid project.

More programs covering health care and off-campus education are set to be introduced.

Under one agreement, the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School and the Shigatse Shanghai Experimental School will establish a sister school relationship.

The two will share experiences and resources in training teachers, designing curricula as well as carry out cultural exchanges and visits by students and teachers.

The first batch of teachers from the Shigatse school will come to Shanghai in December to learn teaching methods and school management at the Soong Ching Ling School.

“We will show them our curricula in sciences, interdisciplinary teaching and culture inheritance,” said Feng Lirong, principal of the Soong Ching Ling School.

Deple, a Tibetan teacher who teaches Chinese at the Shigatse Shanghai Experimental School and a member of the delegation from Shigatse, said it was her first visit to Shanghai and she found a lot to learn from their counterparts.

“There are diversified classes here and students are active in organizing after-class activities by themselves to explore the world,” she said.

Another agreement involves preschool education. The China Welfare Institute Nursery will use its experience in the caring and education of children under 6 years old to train managers and teachers from Shigatse nurseries and kindergartens.

Zhao Bing, vice mayor of Shigatse, said he believed that the agreements would have a historic influence on the development of education in Shigatse.